Water heaters are traditionally fitted with a baffle arrangement at the point where the cold water inlet pipe enters the water container to minimise the agitation and subsequent mixing of cold inlet and hot stored water. This baffle can take several forms, but usually relies on altering the direction of the inlet flow. Where the water heater is fed by a high pressure, high flow, cold feed, the velocity of the water entering the water container is often sufficient, despite the presence of a baffle, to cause agitation of the stored water, thus mixing the stored hot water with cold inlet water, reducing the hot water output efficiency of the water heater.
It is the intention of the present invention to alleviate this problem and to also reduce the inlet water velocity to such a level that the flow noise at the inlet of the heater is minimal thereby ensuring quieter running of the heater itself.